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On October 24, 2024, the newly-married Kirito and Asuna met with their guild leader, Heathcliff at the Knights of the Blood (KoB) Headquarters and asked for some time off to recover from the ordeal involving with Kuradeel, as well as due to their growing distrust of the guild. Heathcliff allowed them to take a temporary leave, stating that they would be called back to the front lines eventually. The following day Kirito and Asuna started their honeymoon in their own house in «Coral Village» on the 22nd Floor. Kirito asked Asuna if their relationship would continue in the real world. In response to this question, Asuna told Kirito that her feelings for him were real and when they returned, she would find him and fall in love with him once again.

Kirito and Asuna encounter a girl in white dress.

A few days later, Kirito decided to take Asuna to the woods to play. Along the way, Asuna managed to convince Kirito to carry her on his shoulders by pointing out that it was just the two of them there, and the two followed the path to their destination. Then, several players fishing in the lake noticed them, and Kirito, who was already embarrassed at this, ran away quickly. When they reached the grove, Kirito started telling Asuna about the rumors he heard about of a wandering ghost of the hunted monsters roaming around in the forest at night. While Kirito told the story, Asuna became speechless as she witnessed a white child figure walking in the woods, believing it to be the ghost at first, until she realized that it was a child. After Asuna alerted Kirito about the mysterious child's presence, the child suddenly collapsed in front of them. Kirito approached the child and noticed that it was a little girl who appeared to be unconscious, thus they decided to bring her back to their home to rest. Although they were concerned that she lacked a cursor of any kind, they assumed that it was some sort of glitch. They quickly deduced that she was not an NPC, as no harassment warning appeared when they moved her, nor a quest giver, since she did not have any sort of quest message, and thus they assumed she was a player, despite the NerveGear having an age restriction during setup. The couple decided to try to deal with the matter the next day.

A small "family".

The next day, the girl woke up and Kirito and Asuna learned that her name was Yui, however Yui did not seem to remember anything else, neither what she was doing in the forest nor who her parents were. Both Kirito and Asuna tried to introduce themselves to Yui and took care not to upset her. However, Yui seemed to have difficulty pronouncing their name, so Kirito ask Yui what she rather call them. After a few moments thinking, Yui addressed "Kito" as "papa" and "Auna" as "mama". The couple were initially surprised, but they quickly accepted Yui as their "daughter" and the newly formed family were overjoyed. While having lunch, "father" and "daughter" teased "mother" as Kirito gave Yui his extra spicy sandwich much to the latter's delight. Kirito then told Asuna that they should have an extra spicy dinner, to which she refused, causing Kirito and Yui to laugh. Once Yui fell asleep after having lunch, Asuna asked Kirito about what their next action should be. From the looks of Yui's current clothing, Kirito and Asuna considered checking the 1st Floor, so they agreed that when Yui woke up, they would try visiting the Town of Beginnings for any sign of Yui’s family or guardian.

Later that day, Kirito carried Yui on his back and went with Asuna to the 1st Floor. When they arrived at the Teleport Gate in the Town of Beginnings and Kirito asked Yui if anything seemed familiar to her, she replied that she did not recognize anything. As they moved to the market area, they noticed that there was a lack of players in the market area, considering the number of surviving players living in the Town of Beginnings. Suddenly, they heard several screams and headed towards the location to investigate.

Asuna repelling The Army.

When they arrived at the scene, they witnessed a bespectacled female player, named Sasha, trying to save a group of children who were being harassed by The Army players. They were arguing about some unpaid taxes, and The Army members demanded that Sasha and the children strip off their armor and leave all their equipment as payment to them. As Sasha was about to unsheathe her sword to confront them, Kirito and Asuna jumped into the action to help. While leaving Kirito to take care of Yui, Asuna attacked the group leader of The Army players. Despite that players' hit points could not decrease while inside a city's «AREA», they would still experience an unpleasant feedback of Sword Skills, which Asuna made full use of. After Asuna drove off the opposing players, the children gathered around to thank her.

Yui creates a huge glitch.

Suddenly, Yui started muttering about everyone's hearts and stated that she did not come from the 1st Floor but from a much darker place. Yui started panicking and a huge glitch-like phenomena occurred. After Yui cried out, she fell from Kirito’s back and Asuna managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Yui fell unconscious, leaving Kirito and Asuna only to wonder what happened amongst themselves.

The events of The Day Before, including Kirito and Asuna's marriage scene were omitted.

The scene where Kirito and Asuna visited the KoB Headquarters to ask for a temporary leave actually happened on the same day as the incident at the 55th Floor's Labyrinth entrance in the novel.

In the novel, Kirito disclosed to Asuna the summary story of the "Ghost Girl in the Forest" while they were still at home and later added more details when they reached the forest. In the anime, Kirito informed Asuna of the "ghost girl" only when they were inside the forest.

The part where Kirito told Asuna about his unsuccessful attempt at climbing the pillars that connected the floors of Aincrad was omitted in the anime.

The part where Kirito mentioned Silica in his travels was omitted in the anime.

The part where Yui opened her main menu, revealing its unusual design to Kirito and Asuna, was omitted in the anime.

The meeting with a player on the 1st Floor who told Kirito, Asuna, and Yui about the church and The Army's activity was omitted in the anime.

In the novel, Asuna and Kirito first went to the 1st Floor church where they met Sasha and were informed that several children were trapped by «The Army». In the anime, the couple came across the said children and Sasha in an alley of the central market.

In the novel, The Army members rushed to the aid of their leaders, and those who were not stunned by Asuna's assault deserted the alleyway. In the anime, Asuna only targeted the leader, and all of The Army players quickly escaped the area.

In the novel, Asuna simply rushed to embrace Yui when the child began suffering the glitch-like episode, while in the anime, she caught Yui when the young girl fell from Kirito's back and before she hit the ground.